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“My symptoms came from nowhere. I felt absolutely fine at work and then bang, all of the symptoms arrived at once.

"I had a high fever, shivers, intense aching pains in my back and neck, sore throat, painfully tight chest and fatigue.”

Laura and her husband, Matthew, were diagnosed with coronavirus after being tested at home on Monday, March 9.

Laura’s mother, Melissa Powell, was also diagnosed with Covid-19, but the couple’s two children, Ava, 5, and Miles, 10-months, came back negative.

She told Wales Online: “I wanted people to see that you shouldn’t take it lightly but also that there's so much negative stuff being reported in the media, I think people just want reassurance.

“My mum had been to Italy and went to an area that wasn’t infected at the time, there were no reported cases, they came back on Sunday, February 22, within three days my mum started showing symptoms and then I caught it off her.”

Laura explained that her mother had worse symptoms as she has a history of pneumonia.

Laura, from Neath, had Covid-19 after catching it from her mother Melissa (right), who came back from Italy at the end of February (Image: Laura Jacobs)

“The worst was the fever for days, high temp shivers, horrible aching up my back and around my neck, you feel like you can’t move, exhausted.

"After the fever lifted, I started to feel a bit better in myself, it travelled down to my throat so I have a really sore throat and then I had a drier cough which I still have now.

“The fever is definitely the worst bit.”

However, husband Matthew was hit worse, as the 35-year-old has asthma and he developed viral pneumonia and was admitted to Morriston Hospital overnight.

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“He is on the mend the past two days, he’s eating more,” she said, adding how the couple coped with having the family home in quarantine with two small children.

“The consultant advised us to isolate ourselves from the kids as much as possible, which is difficult as they are so young. But we just constantly wash hands before feeding and dressing them, anti-baccing door handles, tables remotes and avoiding hugs and kisses. Everything for Miles is sterilized anyway as he’s under one,” Laura said.

“It was hard, it was a little bit scary for my five-year-old. She was told all of a sudden she couldn’t go to school, go out of the house, go up the park and daddy is not well and there’s a nurse coming.”

Laura said she has had lots of messages about children and hoped her post would show people the virus, for most people wouldn’t have people unwell forever.

“I think people are just really frightened,” said Laura, who hopes that she’ll be able to practically help those coming down with the virus, when she is fully recovered.

Laura and daughter Ava when they were self-isolating (Image: Laura Jacobs)

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“ I think it’s because it’s something new and unknown and you have no answers about how long you'll be ill for, does it get worse, what are the complications and that’s a common thread in the messages I have had.

“People want answers, about whether they had a cough and how long for, and there’s a lot of negativity with the numbers of deaths, cases doubling, the ITU beds being full, you need to hear about people getting better, and the more people hear about those stories the better.”

Laura is hoping that when she’s able to return to work she’ll be of help, but at the moment she’s limited to open spaces because of her cough.

“My consultant is quite confident that once you have had it once you won’t have it again,” said Laura. “I’m hoping I can help people now and we’re in quite a good position to help people out by dropping stuff off. And I work at Morriston Hospital

I don’t have face-to-face contact with patients more of an admin role, but work as I know it, is going to be suspended as of now.

“It might be nice for me to do more face-to-face contact as I can't catch it off anyone.